Gita 01.12 Just because we get others to do what we want them to do doesn’t mean we have won them over to our side

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Bhagavad Gita Tasya Sanjana and Harsham Guru Vidya Pitamaha Simhanadam Vinadyo Chai Chankham Dagma Pratapava Tasya this verse represents the shift from discussion to action in the Bhagavad Gita’s first chapter and a few verses later again there will be a shift from action to discussion Tasya refers to Duryodhana who has been the focus of the discussion till now or the vision of the Gita the Gita has begun with as far as the battlefield setting is concerned Duryodhana’s actions Tasya Sanjana and Harsham so increasing his jubilation Guru Vidya Pitamaha Guru Vidya so the elderly Grandsire of the Kuru dynasty Simhanadam Vinadyo Chai Simhanadam he spoke or he rather in a lion like tone Vinadyo Chai Chankham Dagma Pratapava he blew his conch shell Pratapava he is heroic there are multiple describers used here for Bhishma Kuru Vruddha so he is the elderly Grandsire but he is elderly but he is not frail he is still fit he is still powerful so the word Vruddha refers to old but it doesn’t necessarily refer to weak or emaciated there is a word Samruddha means flourishing prosperous so here Vruddha refers to wise or experienced or seasoned thus the Sanjanayan Harshan Kuru Vruddha Pitamaha for that Grandsire Bhishma what did he do Simhanadam Vinadyo Chai so his blowing of a conch shell was like the thunderous roaring of a lion Shankham Dhanu Pratapava Pratapava he has performed many heroic deeds in the past he is no ordinary person he is a person who has fought many many wars he is a person who has single handedly defeated in the past some of the world’s biggest warriors he is on the side of Duryodhana and if Duryodhana had any apprehension about his readiness, about Bhishma’s readiness to fight that apprehension is addressed it is allayed by Bhishma’s blowing the conch shell so fiercely on the battlefield the blowing of the conch shell is a statement of intent statement of intent means this is what we are going to do so if somebody say there is a fight between two boxers or two fighters and one of them speaks itself very meekly we may say that this person doesn’t have any fighting spirit at all but if both players are roaring vigorously then that would indicate that both of them are determined to fight so Bhishma’s conch when he blew it he blew it so loudly like the sound of lion so therefore on hearing that his jubilation increased and that was what Duryodhana was seeking Duryodhana had become somewhat rattled by seeing the strength and the expertise of the Pandava army he had expected this to be a very easy fight easy journey to victory but it turned out that the Pandavas were far better prepared and far more determined than what he had expected he had thought that my forces are so much but more than theirs that they would easily that they would be cowering in fear to fight against me of course this was unrealistic considering that the Pandavas themselves were great heroes but still he had so much pride in his in his political ability by which he had formed so many alliances and got so many warriors to fight on his side that he simply ended up shocked or at least taken aback on seeing the fierce fighting spirit of the opposite side and his purpose was that he had to invoke a similar fierce fighting spirit in the warriors on his side so the two warriors on whom he depended a lot but whose commitment to him whose emotional connect with him was weak were Bhishma and Drona so he spoke to Drona first and then he spoke to Bhishma he spoke actually not directly to Bhishma but he referred to Bhishma within Bhishma’s earshot so when Bhishma blew the conch shell at that time Duryodhana felt that yes, my speech has been successful if a child is being cranky and is not studying or is not doing what the parents tell them to do but then the parents speak something and persuade the child did the parents feel happy oh, what I spoke the mission was successful otherwise it becomes very difficult to manage things so when we speak something and the purpose of our speaking is fulfilled then we feel happy so on the battlefield Duryodhana had a particular purpose his purpose was to get especially Drona and Bhishma to fight wholeheartedly so what Duryodhana wished to accomplish get the elders to fight wholeheartedly for him he felt he had achieved and thus he felt jubilant now from Bhishma’s perspective was it that it was Duryodhana’s diplomacy that had diplomatic juggling of various interests that had worked or was it something else actually speaking it was much more of Bhishma was not looking forward to the war but he knew that it had to begin and he had had enough of Duryodhana’s machinations that’s it now let’s start fighting so in a sense even before Duryodhana had completed his speech or maybe Duryodhana had completed his speech but it was a general address to everyone and Duryodhana and Bhishma felt now it’s enough let’s start fighting and he signified the beginning of the hostilities there is at least no indication from Duryodhana in the Gita Duryodhana signaled to Bhishma that now I have spoken enough now you take over but Bhishma blew the conch so when we speak something to get others to do something whether those people are doing that thing because of the reason why we wanted them to do it or because of some other reason we don’t know that so there is our intention for doing something some action and we want others to join us in that action but their intention in joining that action may not be the same as ours Duryodhana’s main concern was that Drona and Bhishma may not fight wholeheartedly now Bhishma did fight wholeheartedly but for a transcendental purpose to especially in the ninth day he fought with such vehemence especially against Arjuna so as to force Krishna to pick up his pick up a weapon and to defend his dear devotee and thus he demonstrated to the world the great devotion of Krishna for his devotees how unfailingly he protects his devotees so when we congratulate ourselves because we have got someone to do something we shouldn’t be premature in that congratulation we might not have won others to our way of thinking but I just say circumstantially agreed to what we want to do because of entirely different motives from ours such as the subtleties in which the human mind works and the Bhagavad Gita which will later tell us much more about how the mind works here gives us some glimpse of that complexity right in its first chapter